


Lord of the Tooks: The Return of the Study

by baranduin



Category: Lord of the Rings (2001 2002 2003), Lord of the Rings (Novel)
Genre: Gen, Waymeet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-15
Updated: 2009-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-02 22:46:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baranduin/pseuds/baranduin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Waymeet's Good Housekeeping Challenge, having received sealing wax and a seal as a mathom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lord of the Tooks: The Return of the Study

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Over-long sentences and low humor. Crackish.

_'It reminds me, somehow, of the old room in the Great Place of the Tooks away back in the Smials at Tuckborough: a huge place, where the furniture has never been moved or changed for generations. They say the Old Took lived in it year after year, while he and the room got older and shabbier together-and it has never changed since he died, a century ago. (The Two Towers, "Treebeard")_

* * *

It had originally been the Took's Study with a capital 'S,' passed on from father to son since the Great Place of the Tooks had been excavated in S.R. 1083 by Thain Isengrim II. And an imposing, impressive room it remained, even in after years when none dared try to occupy it and the atmosphere had more to do with eccentricity and uncanny goings-on, both anathema to the common hobbit. Most people even forgot that it had been the Took's Study and a place of important business rather than a shabby old haunted room where an ancient hobbit had finished out his days nodding and grumbling to himself, only brightening when some well-meaning relative tried to clear a little order in the disordered place.

Peregrin Took remembered, though it is more correct and far more interesting to say that he was made aware of this salient fact by none other than Gandalf the White when he paid his last visit to Tuckborough in the autumn of S.R. 1421.

Gandalf and Pippin were standing in the doorway, staring at the drifts of dust and trying not to breathe in, when Gandalf said, "Pippin, my boy, when you are Thain, shall you claim your rightful place here?"

Pippin sneezed several times into his flowered handkerchief and said, "What?" This seemed to annoy Gandalf (though it could have been the dust), for the wizard muttered under his breath for a while about the foolishness of all Tooks and especially the one in front of him, but eventually he took a deep breath and spoke clearly, his famous eyebrows curling and uncurling briskly.

"This was once the Thain's study and office, his official place of business, though since the Old Took passed on, it fell into disuse and all who tried to occupy it were dismayed at certain goings-on … or so I have heard." He said that with a Gandalfian twinkle in his eye.

Now Pippin may have been a fool of a Took, but he'd learned a thing or two and knew it. He also realized Gandalf knew it too or the wizard would not have spoken. "I suppose it would be asking too much for you to speak clearly for once?"

"Nonsense, I always speak clearly for those with the wits to hear."

Pippin knew that there was more to come and he also suspected that keeping his composure would probably be a good way to behave in the manner most conducive to successful wizard wheedling. So instead of tossing his head and giving Gandalf a pert reply, he feigned a coughing fit. He shook his head, waved his flowered handkerchief and pointed to his mouth to express his inability to speak. He smiled regretfully. Gandalf raised his eyebrows, which trembled as though on the cusp of uncurling again.

"Ahem," Gandalf said. "You have learned a thing or two, my boy."

At that moment, the sound of approaching footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. Gandalf said, "I leave you with these words. The one who is able to put his rightful stamp on the Thainhood shall return to the Study."

Pippin's mouth fell open.

Gandalf smiled and his eyes twinkled.

* * *

After a few years, Pippin became the Took and a very dashing Thain he was, along with his best friend Meriadoc Brandybuck, the Master of Brandy Hall. All in the Shire (and past its Borders even to points as far as the Bree-land and beyond) admired them for their high spirits and courage and not just their hereditary offices. (The armor of Rohan and Gondor, which they always kept well-tended and brightly polished, helped as well.)

It was a good thing that there were no observers on the day after Pippin became Thain and, with Merry, stood again in the doorway to the Old Took's study. Otherwise, their reputations would have been blown. In a manner of speaking.

Merry said, between sneezing and coughing, "What did Gandalf say again? Tell me his exact words."

Pippin did.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes … a-tissue!"

Merry covered his nose and mouth with his rather soppy handkerchief and said in a muffled voice, "Perhaps he meant it should be cleaned thoroughly?"

This vexed Pippin. He'd told Merry many times what happened when someone tried to do just that. It vexed him enough that it gave him an idea. He smiled sweetly and spoke in a syrupy voice. "Why don't you try? After all, you are a Brandybuck and not just a tupenny Took!"

This in turned vexed Merry. As a matter of fact, it made him downright cross. His face turned redder than it already was from all the sneezing and coughing. He said, "Very well! Have you a broom?"

In short order, Merry was outfitted with a broom, a dustbin, several rags and a jar of beeswax furniture polish that smelled of bright lemon. Surely all that household armory would make short work of the age-old dust. He stepped over the threshold into the room.

One large shout and a blast of dusty air propelled Merry back out into the hall again and rudely dumped him on his bottom, He fell back onto his elbows and slid several feet, coming to a disheveled halt against a wall. His hair stood straight up, dust bunnies clung aggressively to his nose, mouth and eyelids, and the broom, dustbin, and rags fell higgledy piggledy on top of him. The tin of polish rolled down the hallway until it clattered over on its side and lay still, defeated, emitting a faint smell of bitter lemons.

Merry looked up at Pippin, who only smirked a little and put out his hand to pull Merry to his feet. Merry coughed some more, swiped his hand over his face to remove the dust bunnies, tugged on his weskit, and said, "Did that blasted room say 'Out!' to me?"

Pippin smiled. "Possibly. It says 'Boo!' to me whenever I've tried it."

"Oh, dear."

* * *

So the years passed, full of all the joys and travails of lives well-lived by people who understand the nature of such things and appreciate them.

Pippin was a good Thain, much to his surprise, not that he admitted it to anyone but Merry and then only after several pints.

But it nagged away at him that he could not occupy his rightful Study. Many times in the middle of the night when he could not sleep, he slipped from his bed after whispering a soft word to Diamond and padded to the Study. There he would stand in the doorway and, holding a lit candle in one hand and clinging tightly to the doorjamb with the other, examine this place that called to him with voices that both promised and taunted. After the first few times of being repelled violently, he learned not to set even one foot into the room, though he found that he might lean as far as he could into the old space.

He did not know why he continued to do this, though he did have an inkling of it, which he confided to Merry.

Merry always said, "Of course the key is Gandalf, what he said to you. Silly Took."

And that was the truth. Pippin did not believe that Gandalf would have said the thing he did if there had been no hope of Pippin ever reclaiming the room. So Pippin kept up his habit, never quite losing heart that one day he would discover what was needed to return to the Study in triumph.

* * *

One day, ten years after Pippin became The Took, he was sitting at his desk, looking through a sheaf of papers, contracts in fact for one of the farmers who tilled the land around about Tuckborough. One of the greater surprises of Pippin's life had been to discover that the farms held for the Thain did not just administer themselves and required such legal documents as the regular renewal of leases and such.

"A good year to come, do you think?" he asked the broad figure seated in front of his desk and thought how well the man was named.

"That'll tell in its time," Mr. Broadbeam said. "All good things--and bad--in their own time as I've always said. Still …" He shifted in his seat, not that he had much wiggle room. The guest chairs in Pippin's office were wide and comfortable, but Broadbeam put them to the test and Pippin was sure that every year the wiggle room grew less.

Pippin smiled and listened as Broadbeam went on at length about the prospects for the coming year, which seemed neither fairer nor fouler than usual. But it was tradition for the Thain to listen respectfully to his tenants while the contracts were renewed, and that Pippin did.

Or at least he tried. But the room was uncomfortably warm, the fire having been built up mightily, and he found his attention beginning to waver. To prevent completely falling into his woolgathering or, worse, falling downright asleep, which would have been the height of rudeness (not to mention a treasure trove of gossip throughout the winter), Pippin began to prepare the seal that was to be affixed to the last page of the contract.

He held the red sealing wax over a candle, carefully turning it over as it warmed and then holding it over the thick parchment while it fell into a neat round pool.

"You don't say, Mr. Broadbeam," he murmured a few times without knowing what in the slightest he was murmuring about.

Then he held up the fine gold seal with the large "T" engraved on it and positioned it carefully over the melted wax.

_"Shall you put your claim on the stamp?"_

But he hadn't said that exactly, had he? Hadn't it been more like:

_"The one who is able to put his rightful stamp on the Thainhood shall return to the Study."_

Yes, that was it and then they'd been joined by the throng wanting to give Gandalf their greetings and farewells.

But hadn't he said something else? Just a little something as they turned to face the throng? Something he'd forgotten until now?

_"Will you claim it?"_

And then Pippin's mind traveled back through the years.

_`What does it mean by speak, friend, and enter?' asked Merry._

He sat bolt upright, his mouth dropping open.

"You all right there, Master?" Broadbeam asked, leaning forward.

Pippin stared at him for a minute, said, "Yes! Yes, of course!" and snapped his mouth shut, trying not to shriek out loud with triumph. He pressed the seal firmly into the wax. As he did so, he said clearly and out loud, "I claim you." Then he snorted, twice.

The only immediate outward result was Broadbeam sitting back with a grunt in his chair and staring at Pippin.

Pippin said, "Well, good job, Mr. Broadbeam and all, thank you so much for coming today, shall I see you out, I'm sure you're eager to turn to home, it's a cold day and no mistake, perhaps a pint of ale before you leave, I'll call the servants …"

Before Broadbeam had the chance to untangle himself from his chair, which was no mean feat, Pippin hurried out of the room and to the Study. Later, when he tried to describe it to Merry, he said the room seemed to be waiting for him. Everything in it rustled and sighed, all the dust stirring and the old pages of ancient manuscripts fluttering as if in anticipation of something momentous.

Pippin stood in the doorway, took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold.

The rustling increased a bit and Pippin always swore to Merry that he heard soft voices whispering, perhaps the manuscripts passing on the news of the authority of the new Thain.

And then there was silence.

Only then did Pippin exhale and walk forward confidently to the center of the room.

"Well, I'll be. That old sneak!" Pippin never was able to tell if he'd been thinking of Gandalf or the Old Took with respect to the sneaky ways. Probably both since it seemed unlikely that old Gerontius had been the one to put the spell on the Study. Surely he would have needed assistance and he would have known where to go for it. Though why he would have wanted to do such a thing in the first place …

Finally he turned, stuck his head out the door, and shouted, "Brooms! Dustbins! Now!"


End file.
